What Eating 1 Slice of Pizza Really Does to Your Body

Pizza is the best food on earth and nothing (NOTHING!) can change
that — even though the stuff has long been vilified as a junk food
because it's high in calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

Spoiler
alert: On average, a large slice of pepperoni pizza contains 311
calories, 13.5 grams of total fat (5.5 grams saturated), and 720
milligrams of sodium. And that's just one slice, which almost never
happens.

But before you go slice-shaming yourself, you should know what pizza
actually does to your system, according to registered
dietitian-nutritionist Sonya Angelone, a spokeswoman for the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics.

Lauren Ahn

0 to 10 Minutes After Eating

If your mouth texted your brain, it would look something like this: 🙏 ​​
— and it would hit send before swallowing the first and best pizza
bite. Sadly, the more pizza you eat, the less pleasure that pizza will
provide​ you. (The same goes for any food.)

That's
not to say drooling over said pizza is a total waste: Salivating
triggers the release of digestive enzymes in the mouth, and they get
right down to the business of digestion as chewed food travels from your
mouth, down your esophagus, and into the stomach.

Starting with the
carbs in your crust, these enzymes begin to break your food down into
super simple sugars known as glucose, which your body uses to fuel
movement in your muscles, keep your heart beating, and so forth. But all
of that comes much later.

10 to 15 Minutes After Eating ​

Before
the sugar can hit your bloodstream full throttle (as it's inclined to
do), the fat from the pizza's cheese and pepperoni tap the brakes to
slow the surge. Because your body typically burns through carbs in a hot
sec but takes its time to digest fats, high-fat pizza toppings help you
reap more sustainable energy from your slice. (Bless you, pizza!) If
you're especially sensitive to cheese or gluten, or you've eaten fairly
quickly, you might develop belly bloating as your body continues to
digest your food and release residual gases.

15 to 20 Minutes After Eating

Now
that most of the carbs you've gobbled down are getting all up in your
blood stream, your pancreas secretes the hormone insulin to help your
cells sop up the sugar and put it to use as fuel. If your cells are
already fully stocked (like after your third or fourth slice of pizza),
they may reject the sugars, keeping your blood sugar levels higher for
longer.

Over time, high blood sugar can lead to inflammation, posing
problems that range from cardiovascular disease to nerve damage, poor
circulation, and various infections. (It's why eating a high-sugar diet
can be dangerous — and why diabetes, a disease marked by high blood
sugar levels, can be deadly when left untreated.) Eventually, the sugar
will end up in your liver and be turned to fat. Meanwhile, your levels
of leptin, a hormone secreted by your fat cells to squelch hunger and
stop you from overeating, are steadily rising.

30 Minutes After Eating

Unless
you've grossly overeaten, which can make you feel sluggish, you should
feel fueled up. With food in your stomach, your body has stopped spewing
out the hunger hormone ghrelin, so "Satisfaction" is your new middle
name.

At this point, the acids in your stomach are working hard to
digest all the fat you've eaten. As soon as the fat is broken down,
it's ready to be absorbed into the bloodstream where it will hitch a
ride to your liver and either be rerouted to muscles to be used for
fuel, or — if your muscles have enough fuel to do their thing —
converted into fat cells for safe storage.

This whole process only
raises your levels of triglycerides (i.e., fat in your blood)
temporarily. It's a good thing that they don't stay elevated forever:
Persistently high triglyceride levels, which can be caused by a diet
that's high in sugar, alcohol, or unhealthy fats (looking
at you, pepperoni!) — can displace your blood's good cholesterol,
ultimately clogging up and hardening your arteries.

If you're overweight
or you have a family history of circulatory disease, your triglyceride
levels will stay higher for longer, so eating just one slice can
increase your risk of conditions like a stroke and heart attack.

If
you're pretty healthy overall, your triglycerides levels should taper
off within about six hours, assuming you laid off the pie after eating
just one slice. (The more fat you eat, the longer your triglycerides
will remain elevated.)

45 to 60 Minutes After Eating

A
fatty meal (love ya, pizza) can make it harder for your blood vessels
to expand, leaving less room for blood to flow and a residual increase
in blood pressure. Because a high-fat diet can also promote blood
clotting, this spells danger for anyone who heads over to Pizza Hut with
existing heart disease risk factors (like a parent who's suffered
through it).

The good news is that your hormones — particularly
leptin, which tells your brain you're full — have really gotten with the
program, so the hunger pangs that made you order pizza in the first
place have been put in their place.

Unlike calorie-counters who
scrap the cheese and meat off their pizza, you shouldn't start to feel
sluggish at this point. Pepperoni and cheese provide fat and some
protein to ground the body's surge of serotonin, a hormone that promotes
sleepiness and tends to flow freely after you eat a meal that solely
contains carbs.

3 to 4 Hours After Eating

Hours
after eating, your blood sugar has come back down to normal and the
food has left your stomach — which could spark your interest in that
leftover slice, or dessert if you ate pizza for an early dinner. Not
everything is back to normal though — your triglycerides levels are
still soaring. (It's one reason why you might want to make your next
meal a salad instead of another greasy feast.) Unless it's time to tuck
in for bed, schedule a snack or meal before your hunger hormone ghrelin,
which is now free-flowing, sends you straight back to the pizza box for
leftovers.

Even Later

If you're
relatively healthy, indulging in a slice of pepperoni pizza every once
in a while will not (repeat: will NOT) kill you. It won't even affect
your weight. In the short term, your weight will only increase by the
actual weight of the pizza, according to Angelone. (Only eating excess
calories over time will contribute to fat gains, she adds.)